What things that were little luxuries when you were a child are now big luxuries due to cost of living?

[Holdontightly]

When I was little, things like cinema tickets, or swimming lessons or owning a dog or cat were fairly routine parts of childhood. Most kids in my bog standard state school had treats on this level, cost wise - obviously there have always been a group of people that can't stretch to any of these treats, but it was much more unusual. They seemed very affordable.

Nowadays, all of these things seem vastly more expensive relatively speaking, imo.

Is there any stuff like this you have thought of?

Nothing that I could attribute to the cost of living crisis.

Lots of things that just got more expensive over time, as a lot of things do.

Yeah I mean, of course it will all vary as to what somebody's interests are.

All my family enjoyed the cinema, none of us were sporty so that was a shared pastime. So I grew up going to the cinema regularly.

My 4th birthday was my mum taking me and my best friend to the cinema.

I didn't have any interest doing something like Scouts, so have no way of knowing but would the cost of the weekly fee and the uniform and trips away roughly even out with the cost of quite a few cinema trips? Or is it a much cheaper hobby?

I'm in my 60s. I went to the cinema a total of four times that I can count, in the first ten years of my life. I got lemonade once a month, there was no chippy nearby except for when we visited my grandma and the only time we ever ate out was on day trips to the seaside. I only went abroad once as a child and that was a school exchange trip. I'd say we're going back to that situation now.

I think the cinema must be an age thing. I am a child of the 70s and we went to cinema nearly every week for kids Saturday matinee for 50p

Same here.
I was born in the early 1960s and my parents were not well off. Only one wage, which was normal then,and three children in the family.

Cinema trips were very rare. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I went while primary school age. We had one week holiday a year, always in the UK. Eating out almost never, apart from perhaps a snack in a cafe. I always longed to be able to buy more books so getting a book token was a luxury.

I'd say cinemas changed around the turn of the millennium in my area. That's when a huge multiplex cinema opened and put the local small cinema out of business. I was really sad about it, because the new one charged twice as much.

Definitely a Sunday Roast, especially roast beef. I never enjoyed it as my mum always made it quite dry, but I'd never buy a joint of beef for my family now. We sometimes do a chicken but it's not too worth it for all the faff and different components.

Same here. Eating out was rare and something like the BHS restaurant. My parents would go out for a curry for their wedding anniversary and a Wimpy for a burger ora takeaway would be a birthday treat only.

I suspect t I am similar age and we certainly didn't do cinema yearly !

I suspect that there will be a huge variation - and you probably lived in a similar community so none of us are really aware of the average / norm for the country when we were children

Nothing. My parents were very low income. We have a much better standard of living now. DS is much better provided for. 🙂

And with the advent of home video players, video rental and then satellite TV and then streaming services, cinemas became less popular, loads shut down and the ones that didn't had to charge more to cover their overheads.

Cinema prices have been high for years because of that. It's not a result of the cost of living crisis.

I was thinking earlier about the coat of renting videos when I was a kid in the 1980s. We used to rent a grown up film and a children’s film for the weekend most weekends. I’m pretty sure they were £1.99 each, so £4 in total. That would be £16 for the month, for eight films. Allowing for inflation, and compared to an annual Netflix subscription, or Amazon prime subscription, that would have been really expensive. Obviously you’d need Wi-Fi on top.

No doubt that many, many other things are a great deal more though.

I’m 30, my local cinema used to be £3.50 “off peak” which was just over an hours wages for me when I was 14/15 so very affordable, we used to go quite often after school. Mind you the concept of having every Disney film ever made at my fingertips for £7 a month would have blown my mind so swings and roundabouts I suppose!

18 quid!! Ours is a tenner and I think that's bad. When I was a child going to the cinema was a massive treat and we hardly ever went.

I wouldn't compare Scouts to the cinema, as it teaches so many skills. I don't know what fees were then, I was paying £30 a term, so £90 a year for DS five years ago. Second hand uniform shirt. Camping gear he already had. DS isn't very sporty at all, which is why he did Scouts not a sport.

Swimming was seen as an essential skill and sacrifices would be made to afford it.

Petrol was cheaper I'm sure.

Secondhand cars are apparently extremely expensive currently (someone was boring me rigid explaining why, I zoned out a bit).

I remember paying £1.50 a week for Guides 25 years ago.
Currently pay £35 a term for Scouts.

It probably feels like that if your parents were quite middle class. Since mine definitely weren’t, and things like the cinema were not affordable for us in the 80s/90s, I feel better off now.

Basic food shopping without having to choose cheaper options deliberately - my mum would fill one of the deep trolleys literally heaped full for under £100. Can't even fill a small shallow one for that now!

Not even a pisstake, something as simple as fredos, the chocolate. The price of it now is a joke, even a packet of digestives at my tender age, £5.60!

Sunday roasts were bog standard on a Sunday but a beef roasting joint is so expensive now, so we have cheaper cuts instead

But it would feed a family for at least 3 days - roast on Sunday, cold sliced on Monday (possibly going in to sandwiches too), minced for Tuesday

Food shopping would not include anything like the amount of snacks, fizzy drinks, sweets, processed food in general, or out-of-season fruit/veg

This ages me...two cinema tickets and excellent Italian dinner for two in Soho for £5. Yes, really....

This.

Digestive biscuits are not £5.60 a packet.

Petrol shot up in price with the OPEC embargo 1973-74

I can remember the shock when it first went over £1 per gallon